November 30, 2010

Derek Anderson Pulls a Dennis Green: After being questioned several times about laughing on the sidelines during the Arizona Cardinals' 27-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson launched an angry tirade before storming out of the press conference. "Every single week I put my heart and soul into this!" Anderson yelled. "I don't go out there and laugh. It's not funny. Nothing's funny to me. I don't want go out there and get embarrassed on Monday Night Football in front of everybody."

Yeah, this bothered me, in the context it was presented. I saw the shot of Anderson laughing on the sideline, and the way it looked didn't bother me. His team was getting smoked, and the idea Anderson, or anyone else on the Cardinal sideline, can't chuckle or laugh at something a teammate may say, is absolutely ridiculous. Anyone who has been on the losing end of a horrible game has probably laughed or chuckled due to the frustration aspect of the situation. This reporter calling Anderson out about it is really stupid. But that being said, Anderson could have handled it better, too, by not losing his cool and just saying (his teammate) said something that made him chuckle, and it had nothing to do with the game.

I have had issues with players after playoff losses, for example, where players are just breaking up with other players immediately after the game, when it would seem their frustration with losing a big game should at least carry them to the locker room. I didn't see this as the case with Anderson.

Also, was it just me or did the accompanying clip on the link have 20 or more advertisements before playing the actual clip? My god, I didn't think the actual clip was even going to come on!

While I didn't see that actual incident, I have no problem with a professional player not being distraught over a game that is lost. I wouldn't want to see a player on the field laughing, but a guy on the sidelines that might have been smiling at something just shown on the Jumbotron, or perhaps as dyams pointed out, chuckling out of frustration, is not the biggest issue of the day. For the reporter to press the issue was out of line.

Watched the part of the game where they grabbed the footage ...
believe me, the poor broadcast crew was looking for something/!anything that might keep the audience's attention. That was about the most brutal MNF game I've ever watched (in this case "portions of").

It was bad to pick solely on Anderson, there were any number of others on either team that could have been the target.

Reminds me of when I was on the varsity baseball team. During a game that had long gotten out of hand my friend and I were on the bench joking around about who knows what. Our coach noticed and yelled at us but it didn't stop there. After the game he ripped into us for about 15 minutes about having the right attitude and who knows what. God forbid we talk about something other than baseball on the bench.

BitterOldPunk - With all due respect. Electing to punt down by two scores in the second quarter is not giving up on a game. Actually it is a sign that he still felt there was plenty of time to recover and was still in the game. Not punting is more of a sign of desperation, and at that point in the game a good team is still sticking with a solid game plan and not yet ready to start with going on fourth down or onside kicks. Not in the second quarter.

It's a fine line. You don't want to take a defeat or a losing season so badly that it's debilitating, but you don't want to be so loose such that it is evidence you no longer care about the result of the game or the season. (As a Cubs fan, I heard many a sportscaster discuss this issue) At best, he didn't have his head in the game when he should have; at very worse, it appears as if he cared so little that about winning the game that he nothing better to do than joke around.

Derek Anderson crossed that, if cared as much about winning as he opined in his post-game rat he be focusing on the game.